Fastener stack and fasteners having bodies of foam

ABSTRACT

Fasteners such as clips and seals are each provided with a body of foam in its open zone. The foam is carried into a clinched joint to form a tight durable joint. The foam may be used to unitize a stack of like fasteners, thereby to provide an easily handled, somewhat bendable and pliable fastener stack.

United States Patent Bagriel Oct. 15, 1974 [54] FASTENER STACK ANDFASTENERS 3.376.614 4/l968 Stuhl. .lr. 224/421 c HAVING BODIES 0 FOAM3.506.116 4/1970 Winters 206/56 AB 3.647593 3/l973 Lingle ct 111......206/56 DF [75] In entor: W l a L- Bag schaumburg, Ill. 3.722.670 3 1973Plunkett 206/56 DF [73] Assignee: Signode Corporation, Glenview, lll.[22] Filed. Oct. 16, 1972 Primary ExaminerWilliam T. Dixson. Jr.

[2]] Appl. No.: 297,814

[57] ABSTRACT Fasteners such as clips and seals are each provided [581"206/56 DF 5 AB 46 H with a body of foam in its open zone. The foam iscar- 1 g gg W l74/84C 224/42 1 ried into a clinched joint to form atight durable joint.

The foam may be used to unitize a stack of like fasteners, thereby toprovide an easily handled, somewhat [56] References Clted bendable andpliable fastener stack.

UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,976,592 3/l96l Christin 24/23 w 5 Claims, 7Drawing Figures FASTENER STACK AND FASTENERS HAVING BODIES OF FOAMmaterial which, when the fastener is clinched to form a joint, will bepositioned in the joint. The invention also relates to a stack of suchfasteners, each fastener being adapted to be separated from the stackand to carry its body of foammaterial with the fastener as it isseparated so that when it is clinched to form a joint the foam materialwill be positioned in the joint.

A variety of fasteners for securing elongate wires, strapping and otherligatures are known to the art. Some are adapted to be nested, therebyto form relatively compact stacks. Such a stack is illustrated in KusterUS. Pat. No. 3,032,l84. Other fasteners are adapted to be stacked in aside-by-side array. Such an array is illustrated in Blumensaadt US. Pat.No. 2,574,81 l. Fasteners of those types are adapted to be closed andclinched about two or more elongate members, and a variety of machineshave been designed for separating and feeding such fasteners from amagazine fed stack to a clinching mechanism in which such fasteners areclinched about such elongate members to be held. Some such fasteners arereferred to as seals, a term most commonly used when speaking ofstrapping fasteners, and some such fasteners are referred to as clips, aterm most commonly used when speaking of wire fasteners. The termfastener as used in this application is intended to embrace both typesof fasteners. Although some fastenersmay be individually inserted intothe magazine of a fastening tool, wherever possible, a multiplicity ofsuch fasteners is integrated into a stack thereby to facilitate theirhandling from the time they are made into a stack until the time theyare driven from an appropriate fastening tool.

Most methods of integrating a plurality of fasteners have nothing to dowith the joint to be produced by the fastener. ltegrating methodscurrently in use utilize snap connections, adhesive,.strips ofmaterials, such as adhesive tapes or papers. All of these serve only tosecure the fasteners to each other and are deliberately designed tointerfere as little as possible with the joint to be produced when thefastener is clinched to form the joint.

When glues are used, unless they are of very high peel strength, afastener stack tends to become quite rigid and difficult to handle. Suchstacks are, of necessity, relatively short. Furthermore, when glue isused, a good intimate relationship between the fasteners is necessaryand care must be taken that a fragile bridge will not be formed betweenadjacent fasteners which would promote breakage. When extraneousmaterials, such as tapes and the like, are used to unitize a stack offasteners. extraneous material remains when fasteners are driven fromthe stack, this sometimes tending adversely to affect the operation ofthe fastening tool. And, too frequently joints formed with most priorart clips tend towards looseness in use, thereby producing squeakyassemblies and the like.

. A recently suggested fastener unitizing method utilizes plasticfilaments edge connected to a stack of fas teners. When the fasteners sounitized are severed from a stack, portions of the filamentsare carriedby the edges of the fasteners, ultimately to be crimped-into a joint.Although joints soproduced areimproved upon prior art joints, they dorequire the formation of edge notches which in some fasteners cannot beused because of an insufficient amount of fastener material to permitnotching.

In accordance with the present invention, a fastener defining an openzone to confront members to be held to each other is provided with abodyof foam material disposed within at least a portion of the open zone.When such a fastener is secured to members tobeheld together, the foamis compressed'between the members and the fastener. Preferredfastenersare adapted and configured to receive elongate members, such as wires,and to be closed and clinched to embrace and hold the elongate members,the foam material being positioned within the closed fastener therebytoform a tight durable joint with the members embraced. Desirably thefoam is relatively flexible and resilient. Preferably it also serves toconnect adjacent like fasteners of a stack to each other, whether nestedor not. In a presently preferred embodiment the foam is continuousthroughout the length of a stack of like'fastene rs, thereby to unitizethe stack as well as serving, upon severance of the individual fastenersand closure about the elongate members, cooperatively to form a tightdurable joint.

Further objects, features and advantages of this invention will becomeapparent from the following description and drawings of which:

FIG. 1 is an exploded perspective view of a fastener stack formed inaccordance with the present invention;

FIG. 2 is a bottom perspective view of the fastener stack of FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is a perspective view of a fastener of FIG. 1 crimped about wiresto form a joint;

FIGS. 4, S and 6 are exploded perspective views of further fastenerstacks formed in accordance with this invention; and

FIG. 7 is a view similar to FIG. 3, showing a fastener of FIG. 6 crimpedabout wires to form a joint.

Referring first to the embodiment of FIGS. -1 to 3, a fastener stack 10comprises a plurality of clips or fasteners 12. Each fastener 12 may beformed in a conven-' tional manner from sheet metal and comprisesrounded central body portion 14 and downwardly extending spaced legmembers. In this case, the leg members comprise a single front leg 16and a pair of offset spaced back legs 18. Legs 16 and 18 are spaced andwith body portion 14 define a concave open zone '19 to receive wires tobe clinched. Such a fastener is especially adapted for securing thewires of springs for bedding and for seats to each other.

As seen in FIGS. I and 2, fastenerslZ are adapted to be positioned in anadjacent or juxtaposed relationship with respect to one another,preferably with the front and about 4 pounds per cubic feet, althoughfoam having a substantially greater density should be useful as well.Such foam also has good adhesion characteristics. Foam F is continuousfrom fastener to fastener in stack 10, through the spaces between theadjacent legs of adjacent clips, thereby unitizing the fasteners into afastener stack. Where the foam is not also adhesive, a suitable bondingagent may be provided for integrating the fastneers into a fastenerstack and for causing the foam body B to be fast with each fastener 12when it is separated from stack 10.

A stack of fasteners is adapted to be separated for feeding of theindividual fasteners 12 which may then be clinched to form a joint. Atool of the general character illustrated and described in BlumensaadtUS. Pat. No. 2,574,81 1 may be used to feed and clinch fasteners 12.Such a tool utilizes an anvil arrangement in which the legs of afastener are gradually curled and clinched about two or more elongatemembers, such as wires to be used in mattresses or seating, the legsgradually closing to embrace, surround and hold the wires. As thefasteners are brought to their completely closed or fully clinchedposition, the foam body B is compressed against the wires within thefasteners, thereby to provide a strong, filled joint (see FIG. 3).

FIG. 4 illustrates a further fastener stack comprising a plurality ofgenerally U-shaped fasteners 21 secured in an elongate array. Fasteners21 each comprises a central web 22 and a pair of front and back legs 24,and defines a concave open zone 26 to receive elongate members to beclinched together. In the embodiment of FIG. 4, front and back legs 24are solid across the entire width of the fastener and are adapted toconfront and abut legs of adjacent fasteners 21. Foam F is introducedinto the stack ofjuxtaposed fasteners 21 to fill the open zones, thefoam projecting outwardly beyond the periphery of the fasteners, i.e.,in this case beyond the lowermost edges 28 of legs 24. Because theprojecting foam is continuous throughout the length of the stack, itserves to integrate the stack of fasteners. It will be clear that thefoam might also extend beyond the sides of the fasteners, thereby toprovide a continuous body of foam for unitizing the fastener stack.

FIG. 5 illustrates another fastener assembly of this invention. In theembodiment of FIG. 5, each of theplurality of fasteners 30 is similar tofasteners 20, except that the legs 32 diverge to allow the fasteners tonest. Each fastener 30 defines a concave open zone 31 adapted to receiveelongate members such as wires intermediate the ends of the wires andmounts a body of foam material B fast with the fastener, disposed withinthe open zone 3] and positioned to confront the elongate members to beheld together. When the legs 32 of a fastener are closed about elongatewire members, the body of foam material B will be compressed against thewires to provide a tight joint.

The fasteners 30 are secured to each other for ready separation in afastener tool. They are secured as by a suitable adhesive interposedbetween confronting portions of legs 32 or, for example, as by aproperly configured dimple and recess assembly such as those illustratedin Kuster US. Pat. No. 3,032,184. The foam material used for the bodymay also be between legs 32 to serve to secure the stack of fasteners 30to each other.

Another embodiment of this invention is illustrated in FIG. 6. FIG. 6illustrates fastener members 40 of a J shape. The fasteners arestaggered as illustrated in FIG. 6 and are releasably bonded to eachother by the resilient so that when it is compressed it tends to retainits memory, thereby to avoid its complete crushing. As such it isrelatively uniformly dispersed and tightly compressed in joints, such asthose in FIGS. 3 and 7. Further, variations in the wire sizes may becompensated for by the foam, making a given fastener adaptable to awider range of applications than were prior art clips and fasteners.Joints in accordance with this invention also resist the twisting andmovement of the wires in the joint, and, even if there is some relativemovement, the joint tends to retain its noiseless characteristics.Stacks with such flexible foams are rigid enough to be handled easilybut are pliable and bendable to an extent, thereby minimizing breakagedue trhandling. Of course, other foams may be used as well and otherfasteners, collated and stacked as desired, may also be used.

While this invention is susceptible of embodiment in many differentforms, there has been shown and described in detail preferredembodiments of the invention, with the understanding that the presentdisclosure is to be considered as an exemplification of the principlesof the invention and is not intended to limit the invention to theembodiment illustrated. The scope of the invention will be pointed outin the appended claims.

What is claimed is:

1. A fastener stack comprising a plurality of similarly shaped adjacentmetal fasteners, each of which is adapted to hold elongatemembersitoreach other, each fastener defining an open internal zoneadapted to receive elongate members intermediate their ends and adaptedto be closed to embrace and hold said elongate members, each fastenerproviding a body of given volume of compressible foam material fasttherewithin and disposed within at least a portion of said open zone,said body being positioned to confront said elongate members, each ofsaid fasteners being readily severable from said stack and proportionedto carry said body of foam material therewith, whereby when a severedfastener'is closed about said elongate members, foam material isdisplaced and compressed within said closed fastener to reduce verysubstantially the volume of said foam material and to place foammaterial in intimate retentive engagement with said elongate members.

2. A fastener stack in accordance with claim 1 wherein the open zone ofeach fastener is concave and said foam material is fast with the concavesurface.

3. A fastener stack in accordance with claim 1 wherein said foammaterial is a resilient foam.

4. A fastener stack in accordance with claim 1 wherein said fastenersare U-shaped clip members adapted to be closed and crimped about saidelongate members. A

5. A fastener stack in accordance with claim 1 in which said bodies offoam material are continuous and in said fastener stack.

a UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE CERTIFICATE OF CORRECTION Patent No. 7 114 Dated October 15, 1974 Inventor(s) Wllllam' riel It is certified thaterror appea rs in the above-identified patent and that said LettersPatent are hereby corrected as shown below:

Please correct inventor's name from "Bagriel" to -Gabriel--.

/ IN THE SPECIFICATION =v Columnl, line 43 "Itegrating" shonld beIntegrating Column 1, line 66, "'ffilaments-edge"shouldbe filamentedgesw. Column 3, .line 9,1 I "fa stneet's should be T- fasteners Column3, line 47 "'theplurality" should be the plurality Column 4, line '26;"trhandling" should be to handling Signed and sealed this .7th day OfJanuary 1975.

(SEAL) Attest: v I

MCCOY M; GIBSON JR. c. MARSHALL DANN Attesting Officer I Commissioner ofPatents! F ORM PO-10S0 (10-69)

1. A fastener stack comprising a plurality of similarly shaped adjacentmetal fasteners, each of which the plurality adapted to hold elongatemembers to each other, each fastener defining an open internal zoneadapted to receive elongate members intermediate their ends and adaptedto be closed to embrace and hold said elongate members, each fastenerproviding a body of given volume of compressible foam material fasttherewithin and disposed within at least a portion of said open zone,said body being positioned to confront said elongate members, each ofsaid fasteners being readily severable from said stack and proportionedto carry said body of foam material therewith, whereby when a severedfastener is closed about said elongate members, foam material isdisplaced and compressed within said closed fastener to reduce verysubstantially the volume of said foam material and to place foammaterial in intimate retentive engagement with said elongate members. 2.A fastener stack in accordance with claim 1 wherein the open zone ofeach fastener is concave and said foam material is fast with the concavesurface.
 3. A fastener stack in accordance with claim 1 wherein saidfoam material is a resilient foam.
 4. A fastener stack in accordancewith claim 1 wherein said fasteners are U-shaped clip members adapted tobe closed and crimped about said elongate members.
 5. A fastener stackin accordance with claim 1 in which said bodies of foam material arecontinuous and integral, thereby to secure said fasteners to each otherin said fastener stack.